


I Love Gay Rehearsal

by PrincessOTP



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Acting, Crying, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Michael and Jeremy being the best boys, Pining Michael, Play Rehearsal, Residual angst from squip, Theatre, Whoops I let my ocs slip into the story, as the characters in the play, everytime i go to tag a fic i always forget how to tag, like what do i put here?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 09:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16513802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessOTP/pseuds/PrincessOTP
Summary: Jeremy and Christine try to get Michael to audition for the school play. He finally gives in, but he doesn't expect to get a part in it.Not only does Michael get a lead role, but he also is playing the love interest of none other than Jeremiah Heere.At least he won't have to do much acting to seem like he’s totally in love in Jeremy.





	I Love Gay Rehearsal

“Please!” Jeremy begged, pouting.

“Pretty please with sugar on top?” Christine added, batting her eyes.

They were getting desperate. 

 

Michael’s still not sure how he got himself into this mess. It had started off small. Jeremy had just casually mentioned that the school was about to do another play. “I'm going to audition,” Jeremy had said, “Why don't you try it too?”

“Me?” Michael asked, “I'm not the actor here, that's you.” He nudged his best friend.

“I guess.” Jeremy shrugged.

 

It didn't take long for Christine to join in. “Hey, Michael!” She chirped, bouncing down the hall towards him.

“Hey, Chris, what's up?”

“I'm just preparing for my audition for the school play. You should try it, acting is super fun. Like literally, I would die without theatre.” 

“I dunno…” Michael trailed off.

“Oh come on, you were so good at teching last time, I'm sure you'll do great onstage too.” Christine insisted.

“Christine, there's a big difference between moving the spotlight and being in it.” Michael pointed out.

“I still think you should at least try.” Christine attempted.

“I really don't think I'd be good at it, but thanks.”

 

He thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn't. Although, he should have seen it coming, especially with Christine involved. That girl would not give up on anything if she wanted it enough. And so, the pestering continued.

“Hey, Jere, whatcha doing?”

“Trying to decide which character I want to audition for. Hey, actually there's this one character I think you'd totally be good for-” Jeremy started.

“Too bad I'm not auditioning.”

“Well, you could…” Jeremy told him, a bit sheepishly.

“But I'm not.” Michael ended the conversation.

 

“Michael, I really think you should try acting.” Christine said, first thing in the morning, to him.

“Straight to the point as always, Christine.” Michael joked.

“We need to devirginize you.” She declared, seriously.

“Wh-what?” Michael stuttered.

“First play rehearsal! You never forget your first!”

“Right…” Michael murmured, wondering if Christine even realized that what she said could have been misconstrued. “But I doubt I'll be as good as you and Jeremy.”

“You don't know that! You haven't even tried!” Christine proclaimed.

“Thanks, but I'm good.”

 

“You should read the script for the play, it's pretty interesting.” Jeremy expressed, flipping through the pages of it.

“Jeremy, is this about me auditioning for the play?”

“No! Maybe? Okay, fine! There's no harm in trying!” Jeremy threw up in hands in frustration.

“I'm not gonna be good at it so what's the point?!” Michael shouted.

“Well, you'll never know unless you _try_!” Jeremy persisted.

“No.”

 

“Michael, I can teach you how to act if you really are unsure of your acting skills.” Christine offered.

“Thanks, Christine, but I'm fine.” Michael refused.

“Well so far, that's been your biggest excuse not to so I figured without it, you'll have to audition and see how amazing and wonderful play rehearsal is!” 

“Sorry, but no.”

 

They just went on and on and now here they are only a few days until auditions, which is why Jeremy and Christine are practically on their knees begging.

“Come on, Michael! Don't you love me?” Jeremy whined. Oh if only Jeremy knew how much Michael really loved him.

He rolled his eyes, “Don't try and use that against me.”

“Come on, Michael, please?” Christine cried, “Just try it and you'll see why I love theatre so much!”

“Mikey, please?” Ouch, Jeremy just _had_ to use the cute nickname against him.

“Why is this so important to you?” Michael wondered.

“I just thought it'd be cool to be in the play with you.” Jeremy admitted, “You could be my _play_ -er one!.”

“That was sweet but then you ruined it with the pun.” Michael deadpanned.

“Michael, we just want to share something that's really important to us with you. Can't you just... give it a try? Just this once?” Christine pleaded.

Dang it, they were both to good for the world. To be honest, Michael was still reeling from Jeremy’s comment- despite the awful pun- and then Christine and to pile on the emotions and Michael broke.

“Okay, fine. I'll give it a shot.”

“YAY!” The two theatre geeks jumped up and down in delight. 

Jeremy and Christine walk Michael over how auditions work and Michael is a little less nervous now that he knows they usually do it in groups. He reads the script to see what it’s about before Jeremy has to return it, and he is pleasantly surprised by it. He didn’t really expect a public high school in New Jersey to put on a play involving a same-sex couple.

Even if he didn’t get a part in this, he really wanted to go and see it. He was sure Jeremy and Christine would get in, anyways, so he’d have to go no matter what.

 

When the time for auditions came, Michael realized he was more anxious about this than he thought. Thankfully, Christine and Jeremy were there for him. For the audition, they had to read out a part from the script that the crew had printed out. They found a piece meant for three people and began reading through it together, waiting for their names to be called out to go in.

Once Michael actually got up on the stage, he actually wasn’t as nervous as he thought he’d be. The lines came out naturally and it was over pretty fast. After that, they just had to wait for the cast list to go up.

As he’s said over and over again, Michael doesn't think he'll even get a part, but if he does he has no idea who it’d be. When they went in to audition, they had to turn in a piece of paper with some information about them, including what part they wanted to get. Michael didn't know what to put because he was fine with anything, so he just put down the gay character because why not? He definitely wasn't going to get that part because it was one of the main characters but he couldn't think of anyone else to quickly put down.  
So, Michael didn't get his hopes up. Quite the opposite, actually. Which is why it was so shocking staring at his name on the cast list. 

Christine and Jeremy were excitedly chattering behind him about how fun this play would be, but Michael was too busy glancing from his name to the character’s name. This can't be right… Michael had gotten the role be put down.

“Hey, look!” Christine pointed out. “Michael’s playing your character’s love interest!” She beamed at Jeremy.

“Really? Cool, we’ll have a lot a scenes together and we already have a lot of chemistry as best friends!”

Wait… Nononono. That _really_ can't be right. Michael quickly scanned the list for Jeremy’s name, finding it easily. “Oh. I- I guess I am.” He choked out. 

“You okay, Mikey?” Jeremy asked

“Yeah, just surprised.”

“I told you that you could do it!” His best friend clapped him on the back.

This wasn't happening… Not only did Michael get a lead role, but he was also playing the love interest of none other than Jeremiah Heere.

 

At least he won't have to do much acting to seem like he’s totally in love in Jeremy.

 

Even though he’s totally freaking out, Michael is actually sort of excited for play rehearsal. From the praises Christine and Jeremy sang about it, Michael thought it would be fun– despite his big gay panic.

Speaking of singing praises, Christine is praising the school right now for being so progressive. He was sitting in between her and Jeremy as they waited for play rehearsal to start. The first day was just going to be a read-through, but Christine was amped up anyways.

“The first day is always amazing! It's when you first meet all of your castmates and you all come together for the first time.” She said earlier. “And then when performances come, you really see how much they’ve developed their character from just the words on the page to an actual person!”

Once it began, the director had everyone introduce themselves and who they were going to play. There were a few familiar faces, such as Chloe and Rich, as well as some people Michael only slightly recognizes from briefly seeing them in the halls.

For awhile, Michael sits and listens to everyone speak. His character actually doesn’t come in for a while, so he doesn’t have to worry about saying anything yet. When his time does come, he jumps right in, not missing a beat. From then on, he has a lot more lines. His character is a lot less chatty than Christine’s, but it’s not like he doesn’t talk; He is in pretty much all of the scenes once his character is introduced, so of course he’s going to still have a lot of lines.

 

“Hey, what if we called each other by our character names? Like a cool nickname!” Christine suggested after the read-through was done and they were all walking away.   
Jeremy and Michael shared a glance and told Christine, “No.” Christine pouted, but still hugged them as they parted ways.

 

The next time they went to play rehearsal, they started the tradition of beginning each rehearsal by playing an improv game to develop their characters. These games made Michael really anxious every time they played, but thankfully his character was a very anxious person.

He didn't get how people could just stand there and start saying things without a script. He could easily start a conversation as himself, but he wasn't supposed to act like himself, he was supposed to be Tai. His character was sort of the opposite of him in terms of confidence. Michael really didn't care what people thought of him, but Tai was a nervous wreck. More like Jeremy than him. Still, he weirdly felt like Tai here because he _wasn't_ confident in acting like he was normally. It's sort of funny how that works to help him with his character.

It slowly got easier to do improv because he starting learning what Tai would do and how he would act. He had taken the real nervousness he felt in the beginning and turned it into Tai’s nervousness. He was starting to get why Jeremy and Christine enjoyed this so much.

 

The fact that he’s playing Jeremy’s love interest wasn’t even a problem like Michael thought it would be… until it was. 

Michael had actually forgotten about the whole gay panic he had because they hadn’t gotten to working on any of the scenes where he and Jeremy were together because they had only really been doing scenes from the first act. Or like, the first half of the first act? ...Pretty much, it’s the part before Michael comes in.

And even thought they had been going in order from the beginning so far, now the director had decided that they should work on the more heartfelt, building of the relationship scenes between the love-interests, which was more towards the middle of act two. When this was announced Michael had freaked out internally a bit, but he figured if he did give off any signs he liked Jeremy, he would just think Michael had gotten really good at acting… hopefully.

The director had asked them to work on memorization before next rehearsal. “You don’t have to have it completely memorized just yet, but it’s always good to go over your lines because soon enough you won’t have them in front of you to read off of.” He instructed, “And it’d be helpful if you read through it together so you can play off of each other. You can do it alone too, if you wish, you’ll still have plenty of practice together during our rehearsal time.”

“Nah, Michael and I can run lines together, right?” Jeremy nudged his best friend.

“Yeah, totally.” Michael responded, trying to force down the part of him that still was worried.

“Great!” The director grinned and walked off.

 

The boys go to Jeremy’s house to practice their lines. Jeremy’s dad is usually at work at this time, so he won’t disturb them and make them break character. They sat down in their beanbags and whipped out their scripts. Michael took a moment to be thankful they each had a set of beanbags in their house. Michael had gotten some for his basement room–because he thought they would fit with his aesthetic–and they both got so comfortable sitting in them that Jeremy got a pair of his own. The moment only lasted a second as he slipped into his role and all of his ‘Michael thoughts’ faded away.

They started with a heart-to-heart scene that the two character’s shared in the middle of act two. They were nearing the end of their mission to get the demon that possessed Tai out of him (Which reminded Michael that he technically had to play two characters and made a mental note to work on the demon character.). Tai had been living with this demon for years so being so close to the release of it stirred a lot of emotions in him. In a way, this also made Michael think of Jeremy. 

Although it wasn’t _years_ , Jeremy did have to deal with a monster inside of him telling him awful things for a little while. The SQUIP. Unlike the SQUIP, Tai’s demon rarely spoke up or even did anything at all, but it could take complete control over him and make him do terrible things. Tai had actually made a deal with the demon in exchange for magical powers. He wanted to become a warlock so that he could save his mother who was very ill. However, even with magic, he couldn’t save her, so he eventually he just had to leave her and say goodbye.

 

“I can’t believe we’re getting it out.” Michael started reading his lines.

“Yeah, it feels like just yesterday I was trying to kill you.” Jeremy mused.

“R-right… Forgot about that.” Honestly, Michael did too. It’s sort of crazy how quickly Jeremy’s character, El, went from hating Tai to liking him. To be fair, El only hated Tai for what the demon did, so once he realized Tai wasn’t at fault, it was all cool.

“Are you okay right now?” Jeremy put a hand on Michael’s shoulder. Michael hadn’t expected it since they were only reading lines but he knew it was a part of the scene.

“It’s angry.” His voice shook, “It doesn’t think it’ll work, but it doesn’t like that I’m trying to get rid of it. In my head, it’s just… cursing at me. Telling me off for thinking about doing this after all it’s done for me. As if it’s ever done anything for me.” Michael scoffed, “All I wanted was to help my mother and-” Michael choked up, proud of how well he could act out these emotions now that he had some practice, “And I didn’t even get to do that.”

“You got to have her around longer at least. You couldn’t cure her but you did keep her alive for a little while longer.” Jeremy comforted. “I would give anything to have had just a few more moments with my mother.”

“‘Anything’ is a lot bigger than you might be thinking though. Sure, I got to keep her a while, and it’s not like I’m not glad that I could be with her for more time than she would have had but… I had to sit there every single day for years, watching her suffering and knowing I couldn’t do anything more for her. Besides, you were the one who told me that I was only delaying the inevitable and you were right to convince me to say goodbye to her. I was only torturing her by keeping her alive when I knew she was in so much pain. She didn’t deserve that.” Michael internally sighed at all of the monologues he was going to have to remember, silently grateful he didn’t have many.

“You know that you didn’t deserve that, too, right?” Jeremy started up a monologue of his own, “You were also hurting having to see her like that, I know. I saw it the day I met you. I looked into your eyes and I knew I couldn’t do what I came there to do because you had gone through way more grief than I ever did. Tai, you’re a good person. You’re literally the sweetest person I’ve ever met.” Jeremy paused while he flipped the page and Michael absent-mindedly did the same, “You had everything taken away from you at such a young age and you are still such a wonderful person and I can’t even imagine how! I turned bitter when my mother died and I swore revenge immediately. You still see the world as a beautiful place despite everything. So you don’t deserve any bad thing that happens to you. You really are amazing.” 

Michael got caught up in the words and couldn’t help but feel like they were actually directed towards him. Jeremy was the most important thing in Michael’s life so Jeremy saying all of this to his face, no matter the situation, really got his heart pounding. Which is probably why he proceed to fuck everything up.

“I love you,” Michael blurted out. 

 

Jeremy’s eyes widened and Michael started panicking. Shit, he didn’t mean to say that. That was not Tai at all, that was all Michael and Jeremy would know just by looking at the script. Michael glanced down and mentally read what he was supposed to say about how when life is bad you have to see everything positively or else you’ll break.   
Michael feels like _he’s_ going to break right now. He slowly shifted his eyes back up, afraid of what he’ll see when he looks back at Jeremy but all Jeremy is doing is flipping through his script.

“That line doesn’t come until the end, where are you?” _Oh thank God_ , Jeremy thought he just said the wrong line.

“Oh, uh, I must’ve accidentally skipped a few pages when I turned the page over. Maybe I should pay more attention next time.” Michael played it off.

“Ah, okay.” Jeremy nodded, “Well, let’s just go back to where we were and just finish that one scene.” 

Michael agreed and everything else went fine after that.

 

Michael was wrong in thinking that having to be the romantic interest was going to be the worst part of getting cast in the role opposite to Jeremy. Sure, the whole confessing-his-love-to-his-best-friend-while-reading-lines thing was not his idea of fun, but it was a whole lot better than playing the character that Jeremy hated.

After skipping forward to practice the heart-to-heart scenes, they went back to when Michael’s character was first introduced. Michael once again had forgotten that Jeremy’s character wanted to kill his at the beginning so he hadn’t prepared at all for it.

Jeremy’s character didn’t even say anything at first in the scene they meet. However, Jeremy, being the wonderful actor he was, completely morphed into El for this scene. At first, Michael thought that the whole thing was funny. El was supposed to be shooting magic at Tai in the scene, but since they don’t have any “magic” to throw right now, Jeremy was just flailing his arms pretending to be shooting bolts at Michael.

Yeah, it was funny until Michael took in Jeremy’s face. Jeremy had transferred all of El’s anger onto him and the harsh but blank look in his best friend’s face was terrifying… and all too familiar. 

It was too much like the look Jeremy gave him after calling him a loser and leaving him in a bathroom to sob alone all night. It reminded him too much of the Jeremy that haunted his nightmares sometimes. The one who left him. The one who hated him.

So, when Michael’s character is supposed to start crying, Michael doesn’t even have to act. He somehow still manages to get his lines out in the midst of his mental breakdown. Michael really doesn’t know how he got through the scene in one piece. Maybe it’s because Jeremy eventually stopped looking at him like that. Maybe it’s because the voice in the back of his head was constantly reminding him that it wasn’t really Jeremy who was looking like that, it was just a character. Either way, he made his way through it.

 

“Wow, you did so great up there! I didn’t know you could cry on command.” Jeremy commented as rehearsal ended. Michael glanced up at Jeremy and as soon as Jeremy eyes locked with his, Michael knew he didn’t need any explanation of what really happened. “Oh my god, Michael. Why didn’t you say something? You didn’t have to finish the scene.” Jeremy was now very concerned.

Michael shrugged, “I dunno, it just made it seem more real? I mean, you were impressed before you knew it was _actually_ real, so I guess I was right.”

“Michael,” Jeremy whined, “Tell me next time. You didn’t have to suffer through that when I could have helped you.”

“I was fine…”

“I’m pretty sure breaking down in the middle of play rehearsal isn’t _fine_ , Michael.”

“Okay, maybe I wasn’t _fine_ , then.” 

“Just promise you’ll tell me next time?” Jeremy begged.

“I promise.”

 

“So, uh, what set you off?” Jeremy inquired, still looking so very worried for his best friend. Michael like this look better. He didn’t like Jeremy to be worried, exactly, he just felt better that Jeremy was worried for _him_.

“You, um, just had this look on your face and it was just like the way you looked at me when-” Michael broke off, but Jeremy didn’t need anymore than that. They had already previously talked about what Michael went through in that bathroom on Halloween.

Jeremy winced. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“You don’t need to apologize, you didn’t know.”

“I should have known.” Jeremy frowned, “I should have realized you weren’t just acting. I could’ve helped you through it. What a terrible best friend I am.” Jeremy eyes began watering.

“Jeremy,” Michael grabbed his Player Two by his shoulders, “You are literally the best, so shut up.”

“If I was the best, I wouldn’t even left you in the first place. A true best friend would have seen how awesome you are from the start. Because you are. You’re so cool and I’m just a broken mess.” Tears had started to roll down Jeremy’s face and Michael knew he needed to stop this because Jeremy should never look like that.

“Dude, I think we’re both a broken mess. But we’re broken messes together. It’s a messed up world, but it’s a two player game, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Jeremy wiped away tears. “But I think you were wrong before.”

“What?”

“I can’t be the best, when you’re the best.” 

“Well, why can’t we both be the best?” Michael suggested.

“Okay,” Jeremy smiled in such a way that made Michael just fall in love with him more. “We’re the best _together_.”

 

A few months later, Jeremy and Michael were still being the best together, along with Christine, as they prepared for opening night of their play. Jeremy as the stoic lead, Christine as the lovable sidekick, and Michael as the shy love interest. 

Michael, to say the very least, was extremely anxious. He mentally went through the whole play in his head at least ten times before it was time to get ready to start the show. Michael was just glad he didn’t have to go on first. Jeremy, however, looked like a nervous wreck.

“Are you okay?” Michael asked, watching Jeremy fidget around in his costume.

“Yeah, I’m just a bit nervous.” Jeremy adjusted his cape.

“Really? I thought you’d be more confident. You do theatre all the time.”

“You never really stop being nervous before the show.” Jeremy admitted. He looked in the mirror. “I still need to put on my stage makeup.”

Michael really underestimated how nervous Jeremy really was because when Jeremy attempted to put makeup on his face, his hand was shaking so much that Michael had to step in. “I’ll help you.” Michael told him, taking the makeup brush. “You really are worried about the play, aren’t you?” 

“Yeah, I’m the main character. I have the most lines and I’m in pretty much every scene. It’s a lot to memorize. I mean, I have it memorized of course, but I’m still worried I’ll forget.”

“Yeah, I get that. I really want to do good tonight.”

“You’re gonna do great, Micah.” Jeremy smiled and Michael tried to focus back on getting the foundation even while willing down a blush. That nickname always got to him.  
There wasn’t really a lot of makeup that needed doing, but Michael got really concentrated in making it perfect. He knew it really didn’t need to be, since the audience wouldn’t be close enough to really see it, but that didn’t matter.

Ever since the “squipcident” Michael had somehow become close friends with Chloe Valentine. She would come over with Brooke sometimes and they’d all do each other’s makeup. So maybe, along the way, he became a perfectionist when it came to this, but really it’s all the girls’ fault.

Speaking of Chloe, she was putting her own makeup in the corner. Which could be another reason why he wants to do a good job on Jeremy’s makeup. Michael doesn’t necessarily need to impress Chloe, but he sort of wants to show that he’s become really good at this kind of thing. ...Okay maybe he wants to impress her a bit, but he never had any friends other than Jeremy before, so you can’t blame him for wanting to show off to his new friends.  
Focusing back on Jeremy, Michael caught Jeremy’s eyes. He almost, _almost_ allowed himself to get lost in them, but that was when he realized just how close he had gotten to Jeremy while putting his makeup on. 

Michael cleared his throat and backed up, “You’re all good to go.” Michael told him.

 

Thankfully, opening night went fine. It wasn’t perfect, but Michael wasn’t sure if a totally 100% perfect show was possible. Which sort of made it exciting to see it every single night, you never knew what was going to happen. Everyone did great, though. Jeremy and Christine obviously did a wonderful job, but Michael was more impressed with Chloe. She hadn’t been involved in any play since the “Midsummer Nightmare” of the squip takeover, and from what Jeremy told him, Chloe was always forgetting her lines. It was only her squip that actually knew the lines.

Now, Chloe was here doing this play and she had memorized all of her lines. That’s why he was proud of her the most. Maybe it has something to do with how similar she is to the character, though. They were both snarky and bitchy on the outside, but actually genuine and sweet when you got to know them. Once you really were friends with them, they would be very protective of you.

Michael wondered if the reason Chloe got cast as that character was because she was that character. Well, beside her character being an elf. Speaking of which, Michael was still a little giddy about being in a play with both LGBTQ+ representation, but also with fantasy characters. His inner gay nerd was dying.

“Wasn’t that great?” Christine gushed. “It’s like what I told you on the first day of play rehearsal! You really get to see people develop their character from just words on a page into a real person! You see all of the choices that they made for what they believe the character to be like and that totally let’s you see into how their mind must work and how they go about thinking of things like this and it’s really interesting and insightful, don’t you think?”  
Honestly, Michael had no idea what she just said, so he just smiled and nodded. Michael was just glad he made it through the performance. And the next one, and the one after that. Everything went fine with all of the performances after that.

 

But that’s what the final performance came. Michael was actually kind of sad to have to say goodbye to this play. Jeremy and Christine were right when they said it was super fun. He can see why they keep coming back and doing this.

“You ready to do this one last time?” Jeremy asked.

“Yeah. I actually think I’m going to miss this.” Michael confessed.

“Well, you can always audition for the next play with me.” Jeremy smiled hopefully.

“I may take you up on that.”

“Good. Hey, uh, Michael?” Jeremy suddenly looked sheepish.

“What?”

“I- uh,” Jeremy paused, “I have something to tell you.”

“Okay?” Michael prompted, not knowing where this was going, “What is it?”

“I-” Jeremy began, only to be cut off.

“Get in positions for scene one!” A stagehand urged Jeremy.

“Oh, um, I’ll tell you after the play. Break a leg out there tonight!” Jeremy hugged Michael and turned to the darkened stage, walking out beyond Michael’s sight.

 

What was that about?

 

The last night was going great. People were laughing and applauding and it was probably the best performance they’ve done thus far. It was nearing the end of the play, and Michael was sweating from the hot stage lights. It didn’t really matter, however, since they only had one last scene to do. It was this scene that always got Michael’s heart pounding the most, though, since this is the part where Tai and El kiss. Now of course, Michael didn’t actually kiss Jeremy; it was just a stage kiss, but being so close to Jeremy was enough to get his heart to run a whole marathon.

The scene ended up a lot different this night. It probably started because Michael wasn’t paying attention. He had heard these words a million times over, he could afford to tune a few of them out. He may have missed a line or two, but Jeremy always covered for him. Michael was just so exhausted from doing this night after night.  
Michael only tuned back in when Jeremy said, “I love you.”

Right, this was his cue to say it back. However, Michael looked up at Jeremy and he couldn’t say anything for a moment. Jeremy looked so beautiful under the spotlight. Michael didn’t even care that Jeremy was just as sweaty as he was, he was still gorgeous. It wasn’t just that, though, that made Michael speechless. The way Jeremy was looking at him, it was almost as if he really meant it. Needless to say, Jeremy was a great actor, but this somehow seemed genuine to him.

“I love you too.” Michael’s brain finally caught up with him, hoping the audience thought the paused was for effect.

This was when they were supposed to fake kiss, but something took a hold of Michael, so instead he dragged his best friend down and kissed him for real. Jeremy was shocked, naturally, but soon got with the program, kissing Michael so passionately that the poor gay boy thought that he was gonna die.

 

The two barely even noticed when the lights went down and the curtains closed. It was went the lights came back on that Michael remembered that they needed to get off stage so they could reenter to do their final bow. So, Michael reluctantly ended the kiss. It wasn’t really until after they had done their bows that Michael truly realized what he’d just done.

_'Oh wow that happened what the heck do I do now?'_ Michael thought to himself. Michael knew he had to talk to Jeremy before the cast party or it would be super awkward. Michael went to find Jeremy, but ended up being found first.

“Michael!” Jeremy called, making Michael turn around.

“Jeremy! About what happened, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to kiss you, you were just so beautiful and I’m probably not helping my case but I don’t want things to be weird between us so pleasejustforgetithappened.” Michael rushed out before Jeremy could say anything. He stared at his feet in shame.

“Michael, I don’t think I can forget that.” Jeremy told him. Michael looked up at him to see that Jeremy was… blushing? “Michael, remember how I wanted to tell you something earlier?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Well, um, I was going to tell you that I’ve had the biggest crush on you for a while now.”

 

Wait… _what?_

 

“You… you like me?” Michael was sure he misheard Jeremy.

“Yeah.”

“Oh wow. So like… was this as hard for you as it was for me because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to kiss you like I did today.”

“It was the hardest role I’ve ever had to play, just for that reason, yeah.” Jeremy nodded, smiling.

“Huh, I didn’t actually think you’d respond like that. I didn’t think any of this would be happening. I think I need to sit down.” Michael felt lightheaded with all this new information.

 

It was only a few minutes later that Michael actually processed everything.

“Holy shit!” Michael yelled, surprising Jeremy, “You like me? Like you want to kiss me and be my boyfriend?” Jeremy nodded. “Holy shit, this is the best day of my life. Are you sure I’m not dreaming?”

“You’re not dreaming.” Jeremy assured him.

“Holy shit.”

“Are you going to stop saying that?”

“Sorry, I just kinda can’t believe this is happening.” Michael took a deep breath in an attempt to stop freaking out.

“Yeah, I got that. I can’t really believe it either.” Jeremy confessed, bashfully.

 

After a little while longer, the boys headed off with the rest of the cast. Sliding into his car, Michael glanced over at Jeremy in the passengers side. “So to be clear, we are boyfriends, right?” Michael asked.

“Yes, we are.”

“Awesome. Can I kiss you now?” Michael shifted closer to Jeremy.

“Totally.” 

“Good,” Michael held Jeremy’s face in his hands, leaning in, “Because I got to make up for all the lost time.”

 

Jeremy and Christine were totally right about trying out for the play.

**Author's Note:**

> So the characters that Jeremy and Michael play are actually some of my ocs (though my ocs are actually girls and I just changed their names for this) and I tried to not get too much into their story both because this is about Jeremy and Michael not them, as well as because I don't want to give too much away once I actually decided to write that story. I did have to get into the story a bit, though, because it helped with this story.
> 
> ALSO, I felt like it was semi-relevant to this story, so I thought I'd mention that I made an animatic of I Love Play Rehearsal with Michael singing it. You can see it here if you want to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTnaEel-JYk


End file.
